A long-awaited Chick-fil-A restaurant will give fans of the popular chicken sandwiches and waffle fries another option next week for grabbing food on the go in Chapel Hill.
Nate MacDonald, who lives in the Triangle and owns and operates a Chick-fil-A franchise at Renaissance Village in Durham, will also own the Chapel Hill location, off Fordham Boulevard at University Place mall in Chapel Hill.
The store, which opens for business at 6 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 5, could relieve some of the congestion at Chapel Hill’s other Chick-fil-A restaurant on Eubanks Road.
The mall location will initially be staffed by over 125 employees from MacDonald’s Durham restaurant, which is being remodeled, according to a news release. MacDonald will eventually hire over 100 full- and part-time employees to work at the Chapel Hill store.
MacDonald and his wife have worked at multiple Chick-fil-A locations, including in Raleigh, the release said. In 2012, MacDonald opened his first Chick-fil-A in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
“I am truly humbled by the opportunity to continue serving our guests in the Triangle area in a greater capacity,” MacDonald said in the release. “Serving the community is a cause I’m passionate about, and my hope for this new restaurant is to make guests and team members feel cared for in a personal way.”
More about Chapel Hill’s Chick-fil-A
▪ It replaces a longtime K&W Cafeteria that closed in 2020 and was demolished last year as part of a major redevelopment of the 1970s-era mall.
▪ The mall’s original Chick-fil-A restaurant closed in 2021.
▪ It will have two drive-thru lines and a dining room, plus a dedicated Mobile Thru lane for guests who place their order using the Chick-fil-A App.
▪ It will be open Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
▪ Chick-fil-A’s limited-time specials, Honey Pepper Pimento chicken sandwiches and Banana Pudding milkshakes, are on the menu.
▪ Chick-fil-A’s Shared Table program will collect surplus food from the Chapel Hill restaurant for local community kitchens, shelters, food banks and nonprofits to help those in need.
University Place redevelopment work
The redevelopment project is creating an open-air shopping center with 350,000 square feet of retail space, 60,000 square feet of offices, apartments and a hotel.
Chick-fil-A is just one of the retail and food businesses coming to University Place:
▪ A new apartment building, 900 Willow, and an adjacent parking deck will open soon west of the mall near Silverspot Cinema. The 253-apartment building has eight ground-floor incubator storefronts for creators and startup retailers.
▪ Construction is well underway on the eastern end, where A Southern Season and other mall storefronts were demolished last year.
▪ New storefronts are leasing on the eastern side of the mall and six additional buildings are under construction with up to 17 more storefronts.
▪ Construction at the mall’s main entrance started recently on South Estes Drive.
▪ New tenants are coming, including Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at The Commons, a public green on the mall’s eastern end; Curry Up Now, an Indian street food restaurant; and Chapel Hill’s second JPMorgan Chase bank branch on Estes Drive.
More tenants are pending and could move in through next year, officials with mall owner Ram Realty Advisors have said.
Other business news
▪ Max’s Tin Can opened Wednesday at 201 E. Franklin S. The bar has a name that hearkens back to UNC’s old Indoor Athletic Court — also known as the “Tin Can” — where the men’s basketball team played from 1924-1938, but it also honors one of owner and UNC alumnus Michael Rosenbacher’s golden retrievers. The bar, above Time-Out Restaurant, is open from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
▪ Southern Environmental Law Center: New space is being renovated at 136 E. Rosemary St. to house the nonprofit environmental legal advocacy organization. SELC has maintained offices at Greenbridge, at 601 W. Rosemary St. in Chapel Hill, for roughly 10 years, a spokesperson said. The new offices will fill the fifth floor and half of the fourth floor at the Innovation Hub. SELC could relocate later this year.
The Orange Report
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